


Letting Her Win

by zenby



Category: Gorillaz
Genre: Del's perspective, Friendship, Gambling, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, Phase 1 Gorillaz, Time Skips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-01
Updated: 2015-02-01
Packaged: 2018-03-09 22:50:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3267302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zenby/pseuds/zenby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He had always kind of felt sorry for her. Well, as much as a dead guy could, anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Letting Her Win

**Author's Note:**

> Rated T for mild language and mentions of death! This fic also relies on information from Rise of The Ogre, so if you haven't read that, you might not understand a few references, especially at the ending.

He had always kind of felt sorry for her. Well, as much as a dead guy could, anyway. She had been shipped across the world in a box, for crying out loud. A box! It must have been scary, too. She'd been greeted by some not-so-friendly faces. And she didn't speak any English. Where were her parents, anyway? He never bothered to ask.

It had been a while after she arrived at Kong until he actually had a chance to introduce himself. He had only seen her from behind Russell's eyes, which meant he had seen her, like, twice, because Russ was twice her height and hadn't bothered to look down very much. When Russell finally fell asleep during 2D's half-assed attempt at a movie night (two bandmates on the couch and one on the floor, all straining to keep up with Teenage Zombies playing on a fifteen inch screen. Murdoc hadn't even bothered to show up) - he took the opportunity to come out for a bit and say hello.

With a puff of smoke from Russell's ears, he materialized in the seat between his friend-slash-host and the little guitarist. He couldn't help it. He loved kids - he had three little cousins back when he was alive that he loved entertaining.

"Hey. Heard you was the new guitar player. Noodles, yeah? My name's Del."

He held out his hand for a fist bump, which Noodle returned without hesitation. She still seemed astonished at the fact that he had just come out of her bandmate's ear. Del chuckled.

"Yeah, I live in that guy. Kinda weird, yeah? He's all right though. Wish he didn't eat so much Chinese takeout though. I can only handle so much chop suey, you know?"

Noodle giggled, but their conversation was cut short by 2D turning around and hushing them.

"I-it's the best part! You'd know that if you 'ad been paying attention!"

Noodle grew quiet at the mild rebuke - she too knew that their frontman was serious about his zombie flicks. Del, however, wasn't discouraged. He grabbed a still-sleeping Russell's wallet and fished out a bill. Leaning over to Noodle, he spoke under his breath so that the blue-haired singer wouldn't hear.

"Hey. I bet you five that I can make him cry."

With that, he picked up a crushed soda can up off the floor and chucked it at the back of 2D's skull. It hit hard, with a hollow **_thunk!_** and landed back on the floor.

"Ow! What in the 'ell! I'm watching in m' room, prats."

He stomped off in a huff, but as Del had hoped, he didn't cry. Noodle looked at him expectantly, giggling at her bandmate's display of frustration. Del sighed in mock sadness, handing her the five bucks, as promised.

"Oh well, you win this time, Noodles. But I'll get you eventually! You just wait!"

After that, the two were practically inseparable. Time and time again they gambled on anything from spitball competitions (with Murdoc as their target), to seeing who could make the biggest mess of the rehearsal room before anyone else found out. Whenever the two were on stage together, they shared smirks, daring each other to shove Muds off the stage, though they never did because the shows were always going too well for them to want to mess it up.

Then, almost out of nowhere, in a rage induced by hundreds of failed movie ideas, the band was on hiatus. It was so sudden that Del hadn't gotten a chance to tell his best friend goodbye. Knowing the Gorillaz, though, they'd be back in a year or two. He couldn't wait to see how much she'd have grown in two years.

 

* * *

 

It had been a long drive from the airport. Noodle sighed and stepped out of her rental car, walking through the tall wrought-iron fence. The gate hung loose, looking like it had been broken for several years.

She was supposed to be helping work on lyrics for the next album, but she had insisted on making this trip.

She sat down, staring with cold eyes on the gravestone in front of her.

"You always did let me win, didn't you?"


End file.
